Motorsport101

And back-to-back days with a Podcast, huzzah! Dre, Cam and RJ are joined by Frontstretch.com's Christopher DeHarde to talk about the 110th Running of the Indy 500 tomorrow, the story so far, and preview the grid before the world's biggest race.
It was a dramatic week of prep for quali in a different way - With Bump Day not on the table due to exactly 33 entrants, we had a change of format, with an extra elimination round for Sunday as only Positions 1-9 being locked into the Fast 12, and an extra elimination round for positons 10-15. But with rain destroying Saturday's running, we went to single-run eliminations and a standard Fast 12 and 6 round.
It looked like Felixz Rosenqvist had Qualifying in the bag, but a poor final run opened the door for a trimmed-out Alex Palou to take his second Indy 500 pole position and a $100,000 bonus. 
And on top of that - Alex Rossi, Pato O'Ward and Romain Grosjean had a huge crash on Monday practice, with Rossi breaking his ankle, but still racing on Sunday. The gang break it all down here!

A chilling edition of the Motorsport101 podcast as Dre, RJ and Cam review a MotoGP weekend in Barcelona that had two enormous red flag crashes. During the race, Alex Marquez crashed into the back of Pedro Acosta's KTM as it was cutting out. His bike veers violently towards the wall and Marquez falls out, breaking his clavicle and M7 vertebrae, he'll be out for at least the next two races.
After the race restarted, Johann Zarco locks a brake going into Turn 1, but gets his leg trapped in the frame of Pecco Bagnaia's Ducati, tearing several ligaments in his knee, his meniscus and breaking the bottom of his fibula. He'll be back in France for at least a fortnight before surgery on his leg to repair the damage. Eventually, Fabio di Giannantonio won, but at what cost?
The trio ask the difficult questions. We ponder if KTM should have been allowed back onto the grid after several mechanical problems with their bikes. Should the race have restarted at all with the mood so sour and riders clearly conflicted about wanting to race again. And does Barcelona need more Safety Changes after another horrible accident there? Time for a reprofile of Turn 1? Does Turn 12 need more runoff after Jorge Martin suffered a potential concussion, only to then crash five more times across the weekend? And finally, does the sport need a riders union? 
All that and more on an emotionally loaded Motorsport101.

Warning: Racial topics are discussed in this episode that you may find upsetting. Look after yourselves.
IndyCar had their Sonsio Grand Prix at the Indy Road Course this time last week, and all hell broke loose over a controversial incident early on in the race, when Alex Rossi's car dies on the home straight with cars coming through at 170mph, while the series delayed a caution while the leaders chose whether or not to pit, and confusion when even the broadcast wasn't sure if it was a Full Course Yellow. Rossi put the series on blast over a hybrid unit failing to work, and the danger of the situation.
It led to a grieving of issues that Dre, RJ and Cam have had with the series for sometime - Including the admittance that IndyCar have been making decisions based on flawed logic, and some of the marketing within the series after the Freedom 250 merchandise faux-pas and a rather touchy Meyer Shank livery, alongside elements of the FOX partnership.
It's not for the faint of heart, don't say we didn't warn you. Oh, and Christian Lundgaard won.

Bonus points if any of you spot where the change of transition audio comes from - Dre
A dramatic MotoGP weekend landed at Le Mans, one of the blue ribbon events on the calendar, and it was dominated by two massive stories. On Saturday, Marc Marquez suffered a huge highside at the end of the Sprint, causing him to break a metatarsal in his foot, leading to him missing the Grand Prix, and the Catalonia GP this weekend in Barcelona. It turns out, he was planning to have surgery on said shoulder after Barcelona anyway, and this crash brought that forward. 
On top of what could be the end of Marquez's title defence, we also had Aprilia's first ever podium lockout and the first double win of 2026 - Jorge Martin is a GP winner again for the first time in nearly 600 days. Is he now the favourite for the Championship after beating Marco Bezzecchi at his own game? 
And is Fabio di Giannantonio heading to KTM? All that and more on another M101!

Motorsport101 is back and with it, we start with the sombre news that Alex Zanardi passed away last Friday at the Age of 59. Dre, RJ and Cam pay tribute to the remarkable strength and courage of Alex, a two-time Champ Car Champion, who became a four-time Paralympic Gold Medalist after a life-changing crash at the Lausitzring in 2001. 
Then they review the Miami Grand Prix, as Kimi Antonelli became the first driver in F1 history to convert his first three pole positions into wins, but he faced a stern test from World Champion Lando Norris in a revamped, fast McLaren, with chaos at the start and at the end. A moved GP due to the rain, Max Verstappen spinning at Turn 2 of the opening lap, Pierre Gasly being accidentally punted into the wall, and final lap chaos as Charles Leclerc gets too clever and breaks his own steering arm. As you do. 
But was the racing actually any better now we have new rules? And is Mohammed Ben Sulayem serious about pushing V8's back into F1? We break it down on another Motorsport101!